He noted that the World Cup licence fees this year were mainly "a marketing investment" to net long-term subscribers.

SingTel offered the World Cup free to those who had signed up or renewed their two-year English Premier League contracts. But this meant paying $1,400 over the two years.

More than 80 per cent of the 100,000-odd households fall into this group as at end-June, according to the telco.

It has reasons to continue with this strategy for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

As the host country is only four hours behind Singapore, said analysts, many of the matches will have a better kick-off time - 11pm in Singapore.

Many of the key matches for this year's World Cup in Brazil kicked off at 4am. The poor timing was one of the reasons for the lacklustre response.

The better timing could also lead to higher prices for TV rights. "Surely, you cannot bargain it down," said a market observer, who declined to be named. It is not known how much SingTel paid for this year's World Cup rights. But the 2010 joint bid by StarHub and SingTel was rumoured to have been about $20 million.

Some observers, however, believe that the prices have peaked.

Future bidding should be at the same price or lower, said telecoms researcher Ramakrishna Maruvada from the Daiwa Institute of Research.

"SingTel might have overestimated demand. The obvious implication is that it might not bid as aggressively next time round," he said.

Another factor expected to influence bidding prices: rampant Internet streaming. It was the biggest reason for the fall in World Cup subscriber numbers this year, experts believe.

For the first time, many consumers were able to tune in to the websites of free-to-air British television channels ITV and BBC for their World Cup fix.

These channels put their content online free only for viewers in Britain. However, consumers here were able to access it using an online service, such as UnoTelly, that masks a person's real location.

Media and technology lawyer Bryan Tan, a partner at Pinsent Masons MPillay, said: "Video streaming will pose an even greater threat to traditional pay-TV providers in the next World Cup."

itham@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on Aug 20, 2014. Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.